The Sports Banker

Wednesday, 5th of March, 2025

A lot of very important people seem to have their own blogs, or other sorts of written databases. For example, Sam Altman and Bill Gates have their own blogs. Other examples also come to mind: David Rockefeller had his Rolodex, and Leonardo Da Vinci had his notebooks.

I have heard that it is a good pratice to write down your thoughts and ideas. I believe that I would also like to be a (relatively) important person for the industry that I work in. Therefore, I have decided to start my own blog.

Although it is not yet official -and I REALLY don’t want to jinx it by writing this beforehand- everything seems to indicate that my professional career will be heading towards the banking world. Specifically, towards contributing to the niche of professional sports properties inside the world of banking. This is a very interesting niche, and more so in México. Even though various large and important banks have sports properties throughout the panorama of professional sports in the country, there still seems to be some way to go in terms of exploiting them to their full potential. I might be an idealist, but I would like to change that.

With this aim, I think that “The Sports Banker” is a very fitting name. As a side note, I can’t believe that I got a hold of the TheSportsBanker.com domain. I would have thought that somebody else would have it by now, as I feel that it is a relatively easy name to think of. Could this be a reflection of the relative obscurity of the niche that I am trying to carve out for myself?

“The Sports Banker” seeks to be a written compilation of my thoughts as someone who will be dedicated to improving the relationship of sports within the world of banking. More precisely, banks tend to be major sponsors of sports teams, leagues, players and so on. I guess that a more precise name would have been “The Sports Marketing Banker”, but I think that The Sports Banker sounds better. By being both more concise and broad, I feel that it lets me have the liberty to talk about more topics than just Sports Marketing in Banking. Banks and Sports have a larger relation than just sponsorships.

Anyhow, that is the plan. To write about sports and banks and ideas that I might have to professionalise this relation. They will surely be examples from the past, other industries, and other countries. As Oscar Wilde (allegedly) wrote: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. The plan is to use these writings as a means to improve the bank’s processes in the world of sports business. I don’t know if I will update this blog as regularly as I would like to, or even if I will remember it at all in a few weeks. But I would like to do it as much as possible. Once again, I have read that it is a good practice and everything that helps me to become a better person and professional is more than welcome.

I recently rewatched the “wecrashed” series, which is based on the rise (and fall, I guess?) of Adam Neumann and the business empire that he had created through WeWork. In the final scene of the series, Rebekah, Adam’s wife, answers a call while she is on the beach, that was meant for Adam, while he is loafing around in the sea. The caller is Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank; a businessman who’s company raised billions of dollars in funds from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and, in turn, invested them in WeWork.

In the scene, Masa asks Rebekah the same question that he had asked Adam before during the series: “In a fight, who wins? The smart one or the crazy one?” After Rebekah answers that it is the smart one, Masa answers that it is a trick question, as it is neither of them. It is “the one with all the money”. I believe that this holds as true in the world of sports business as it is in the world of venture capital. In the world of sports business, a bank is among those that have the most money. Therefore, it comes to reason that it should be among those that do the most winning. I aim to strengthen, if possible, that link between the money and the winning.

– Santiago Piedras González